The SPIRAL-Project (the "Project"), financed by the UK government under the LEGEND Challenge Fund and implemented by Deutsche Welthungerhilfe ("WHH") and a private-sector partner (the "Investor"), establishes and tests a fair, transparent, and inclusive business approach (the CPC model) for responsible land-based agricultural investments in the Sierra Leonean Cocoa Sector.

The UK Department for International Development (the “DFID”) plays a strong role in driving changes towards improving land rights protection, land-tenure information and responsible private sector land investments in developing countries. With funding from DFID’s LEGEND Challenge Program, Deutsche Welthungerhilfe (“WHH”) currently tests the CPCModel in partnership with a Sierra Leonean Investor under the SPIRAL-Project (the “Project”).

The report focuses on Sierra Leone (SL), which has placed a high priority on private sector investments over the last decade to support agricultural development. The country has experienced a significant increase of (mainly foreign) investments based on LSLAs, yet few of which are in an advanced stage. The study is based on several of palm oil and cocoa sector investment case studies. Both sectors are very relevant for SL’s economy and have seen several private sector investments.

Investment into large-scale agribusiness projects in African post-conflict states is framed within broader economic reforms. On their surface, these projects boast of attracting much-needed infrastructure development, providing employment and shifts from subsistence agriculture to formal wage labor, and raising GDP.

This study investigated the implications of large-scale land concessions in the Red River Delta, Vietnam, and Northeast Cambodia with regard to urban and agricultural frontiers, agrarian transitions, migration, and places from which the migrant workers originated.

Increasing global demand for natural rubber began in the mid-2000s and led to large-scale expansion of plantations in Laos until rubber latex prices declined greatly beginning in 2011. The expansion of rubber did not, however, occur uniformly across the country. While the north and central Laos experienced mostly local and smallholder plantations, rubber expansion in the south was dominated by transnational companies from Vietnam, China and Thailand through large-scale land concessions, often causing conflicts with local communities.

In economics, land has been traditionally assumed to be a fixed production factor, both in terms of quantity supplied and mobility, as opposed to capital and labor, which are usually considered to be mobile factors, at least to some extent. Yet, in the last decade, international investors have expressed an unexpected interest in farmland and in land-related investments, with the demand for land brusquely rising at an unprecedented pace.

This report details practical lessons on how to approach responsible land based investments in agriculture, derived from the experiences of LEGEND challenge fund projects and other pilots in Africa.

This briefing note presents the Executive Summary of a LEGEND paper that synthesises the key lessons from recent partnership projects in sub-Saharan Africa that explored how private business can partner with civil society stakeholders to demonstrate how agricultural investments can operate responsibly by respecting the legitimate land rights of local communities.

Around the world, land is the foundation of rural life. Perhaps no other asset can equal the transformative power of land to create economic opportunity, boost productivity and food security, and fulfill the promise of fundamental human rights and a life of basic dignity and access to justice.